Quote image editor
“The Queen of Elfland in the Ballad of Thomas is a huntress, a spirit of the wild, and a queen. were the Romans to have encountered such a figure, worshiped by th pre-Christian Celts who inhabited the Eildons, the proces of interpretatio romana would inevitably have led to her being identified with Diana. If we are to look for evidence in the archaeological record supporting a pre-Christian origin for the Queen of Elfland, we do not have to look far to find it: the spot at which this inscribed Roman stone was uncovered lies less than one kilometre from the Rhymer's Stone, where the Eildon Tree once grew.” — William A. Young
The Queen of Elfland in the Ballad of Thomas is a huntress, a spirit of the wild, and a queen. were the Romans to have encountered such a figure, worshiped by th pre-Christian Celts who inhabited the Eildons, the proces of interpretatio romana would inevitably have led to her being identified with Diana. If we are to look for evidence in the archaeological record supporting a pre-Christian origin for the Queen of Elfland, we do not have to look far to find it: the spot at which this inscribed Roman stone was uncovered lies less than one kilometre from the Rhymer's Stone, where the Eildon Tree once grew.